Monday, July 12, 2010

Faraway Inn's Recycling Helps Felines

I often hear from hoteliers and innkeepers about their recycling efforts. I recently wrote about the W San Francisco and its almost 80 percent waste diversion rate. I have reported about many other interesting projects, including composting and even holding an e-waste recycling day (the Proximity Hotel in Greensboro, N.C. did this). In the past week I heard from Doreen and Oliver Bauer at the Faraway Inn in Cedar Key, Fla., about their unique recycling initiative.

The Bauers are offering their inn as a collection point for spent inkjet cartridges, used cell phones and ipods, digital cameras and laptops. They mail the items to a company that properly recycles or disposes of them. In exchange for sending in the items, the inn receives a check made out to their favorite nonprofit organization. "To date, we have received $150 back for mailing in trash," the couple says.

The Humane Society of Inverness is the recipient of the money. The organization helps to neuter/spay feral cats. The Bauers kick in additional volunteer time to help the nonprofit. "Our island cats are spayed/neutered/vaccinated and given a clean bill of health before being released back into their environment to live out their lives kitten free," the Bauers said.

No matter the size of your property--the Faraway Inn has just five employees--you can still make a difference in your community and reduce the flow of waste to landfills. You can write to the Bauers at info@farawayinn.com to learn more about their efforts.